Cuban Missile Crisis: The Aftermath
You’d better hope you’ve got a bomb shelter
Tags: Cuban Missile Crisis: The Aftermath Categories: PC Reviews, Reviews
Posted by Darren on Feb 9th, 2006
| Title | Players | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Cuban Missile Crisis: The Aftermath (title page) | 1 | ||
| Developer | Publisher | Genre | Online |
| Strategy | No | ||
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For those of you who lived under a rock during the 60’s (Or weren’t born yet, but please….that isn’t much of an excuse), something called the Cuban Missile Crisis gripped the world in 1962; but it was primarily involving the Soviet Union and USA. The then American president, John F. Kennedy, was informed that the Soviets were building secret missile bases in Cuba which was rather worrying as Cuba is only 90 miles off the Florida coastline. After a week of the world teetering on the brink of a nuclear holocaust, Russia moved out of Cuba and the threat dissipated. This game follows the alternative outcome of that pivotal point in world history.
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What if the Soviet’s were more aggressive, would it have sparked World War Three? Cuban Missile Crisis takes that possibility and runs with it. This isn’t a historical re-enactment in any sense of the word, but you can’t help feeling like it is. This game is a strategy game, combining real-time and turn-based gameplay. There are four ‘factions’ to choose from: the USSR, the Anglo-American Alliance, the Franco-German Alliance and China. Each has its own campaign, so you can experience the story from all sides. At times you feel like this is a game which can’t make its mind up; and you feel more like this as the game goes on.
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The gameplay in Cuban Missile Crisis is flawed, to say the least. Instead of choosing the en-masse unit control method, you are instead expected to control a small group of units; which would fool you into thinking that would make things easier. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case. The AI difference between your units and the computer’s is astounding, and it makes it very hard for you to compete. The enemy can detect your units very easily, and there seems to be no concept of tactical play at all; which is a huge shame. It seems more like they said:
“Let’s have a free-for-all, and see who is left.”
In the game, you control a variety of modern units; some of which were around during the 1960’s and some of which are slightly more modern. A nice touch is that the various armoured units (Tanks etc.) in the game have unique ratings for their strength at their quarters. When it comes to measuring the health of a unit, a green bar is made to suffice.
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As I said previously, there are two components to the game: Turn-based and Real-time. In the turn-based map, you have to manoeuvre your units around the area; taking notice of spare parts and the like. However, if you encounter enemy troops you are thrust into the real-time area of the game; which is extremely flawed. Thankfully, there is an auto-resolve option; which will automatically predict the outcome of the battle so that you don’t get as annoyed as you might get if you played through it. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean you escape the problems. You are much more likely to lose than win, and it certainly becomes frustrating to know how steeply the odds are stacked against you.
The way Cuban Missile Crisis tells the story, and keeps you informed is vastly uninspired. Mountains of text greet you at every corner, and unless I’m mistaken; I didn’t expect to have to read the equivalent of War and Peace when I play. This is the same with tips on how to play the game; it bombards you with information in the blind hope of something sticking….which doesn’t really work.
As you progress throughout the game, you are rewarded in various ways depending on how successful you were in a mission. You can increase the number of units you can have at your disposal; and even individual units can gain ‘promotions’ and increase their statistics; which will be of great help to you in the future. You can also repair vehicles that have been damaged, which you will have to do; considering that the game is hard even for fully-fit units. It would be a massacre if you sent out damaged units, it really would.
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Unfortunately, even the graphics can’t save it. They are average, and look very similar to Blitzkrieg 2’s appearance; which isn’t a compliment. Unit models are fairly nice to look at, but it’s all too uninspired to catch the eye. Audio is equally as average, but don’t get me wrong; they are definitely adequate, but unfortunately nothing special.
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To say I am disappointed would be an understatement. Cuban Missile Crisis is a very interesting idea for a game, and perhaps investigating how history could have turned out if things were different is a new avenue for game developers to go down. However, they may be put off by this confused and unorganised showing. I think the game would have benefited more from focussing on the tactical aspect of war, rather than the all-out attack aspect of war. The tactical gameplay that Cuban Missile Crisis does have is very weak, and poorly thought-out. The only saving grace is the multi-player mode; where you can actually have mind-games with someone else; and where you can get real enjoyment from defeating someone on the battlefield.
How many times have I said this about a game: The potential was there, and it could have done so much more. However, it fails to deliver on more than one aspect.
| What Works | Score |
|---|---|
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+ Nice idea for a game + Decent graphics and audio + Tries to be different by including two game-types |
5.5 |
| What Doesn't | |
|
- Unbalanced AI - Confusing and excessive text - Tactical gameplay is underused and flawed - Not as fun to play as games of a similar type |
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| Under the Shrink-wrap | |
| Strictly only for the attention of people interested in the post-WW2 period. If you’re new to this type of game, steer well clear; you’ll get lost in there. | |
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Tags: Cuban Missile Crisis: The Aftermath
Posted by Darren on Feb 9th, 2006 and is filed under PC Reviews, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.
